Parshah Summary – P’shat
Jacob leaves his hometown of Be’er Sheva and journeys to Haran. On the way, he stops to sleep and dreams of a ladder spanning earth to heaven, with angels ascending and descending upon it. In the morning, Jacob raises the stone upon which he laid his head as an altar and monument, pledging that it will one day become a house of God.
In Haran, Jacob lives and works for his uncle Laban, tending Laban’s sheep. Jacob loves Laban’s younger daughter, Rachel, and Laban allows them to get married, in return for seven years of work from Jacob. But on the wedding night, Laban switches Rachel with his elder daughter Leah—a deception Jacob only discovers in the morning. A week later, Jacob marries Rachel as well, after agreeing to work for another seven years. Leah gives birth to six sons: Reuven, Shimon, Levi, Judah, Yisakhar and Zebulun, as well as a daughter, Dinah, while Rachel remains barren. Rachel gives Jacob her handmaid Bilhah as a wife to bear children in her stead, and two more sons, Dan and Naphtali, are born. Leah does the same with her handmaid, Zilpah, who gives birth to Gad and Asher. Finally, Rachel’s prayers are answered and she gives birth to Joseph. Jacob has now been in Haran for 14 years, and wishes to return home. But Laban persuades him to remain, offering him sheep in return for his labor, and Jacob becomes wealthy by breeding the sheep in a seemingly magical way. After six years, Jacob flees Haran in stealth, fearing that Laban would prevent him from leaving with his family and property. Laban pursues Jacob, but is warned by God in a dream not to harm him. Laban and Jacob make a pact on Mount Gal-Ed with a pile of stones as a witness, and Jacob proceeds back to Canaan, where he is met by angels.
Torah of Awakening | Jewish Meditation Teaching
אָכֵן֙ יֵ֣שׁ יי בַּמָּק֖וֹם הַזֶּ֑ה וְאָנֹכִ֖י לֹ֥א יָדָֽעְתִּי “Surely the Divine is present in this place and I didn’t even know it!” - Bereisheet (Genesis) 28:16
Imagine you lived in a place where the sky was constantly overcast, so that the sun was hardly ever visible. From your point of view, it would look like the dim light of the overcast sky was coming from the clouds themselves. If you were a small child and had never heard of the sun, that’s what you would probably assume. Now, imagine you are that child – you have no knowledge of the sun, and your parents take you for a trip on an airplane. As the plane gets higher and higher, you look out the window, and you see nothing but cloud all around. Soon after, the plane bursts through the cloud cover and you see the blazing sun and the blue sky for the first time. Imagine what a revelation that would be! That’s what spiritual awakening is like.
For most of us, the sky has been covered with clouds our whole lives. Meaning, our minds are constantly moving with the “clouds” of thoughts and feelings. Without ever questioning, we assume that our consciousness and our thoughts and feelings are identical. Because of this, we also don’t tend to distinguish between our thoughts and feelings we have about reality, and actual Reality. All we know are the clouds; we experience the present moment through the lens of our stories, through our sense of past and future. How to awaken from the seductive dream of our minds and hearts and come to the truth of this moment? וַיִּפְגַּ֨ע בַּמָּקֹ֜ום וַיָּ֤לֶן שָׁם֙ כִּי־בָ֣א הַשֶּׁ֔מֶשׁ He encountered The Place and spent the night there, for the sun had set… The setting of the sun is a metaphor – Jacob is running away from his murderous brother - he is in a state of inner darkness. At first he was running and running, until he “encounters The Place” – he sets stones for his head and lays down on the earth. In other words, he connects with the support beneath him – the physicality of his present experience. Then, Jacob has a dream in which God appears and he sees a ladder reaching from the earth to heaven with angels going up and down. Then it says: :וַיִּיקַ֣ץ יַעֲקֹב֮ מִשְּׁנָתֹו֒ וַיֹּ֕אמֶר אָכֵן֙ יֵ֣שׁ יְהוָ֔ה בַּמָּקֹ֖ום הַזֶּ֑ה וְאָנֹכִ֖י לֹ֥א יָדָֽעְתִּי Jacob awakened and said, “Surely the Divine is in this Place and I didn’t even know it!” The Divine is not something separate from the truth of this moment – it is the radiant sun of consciousness, ever-present as the perceiving Presence that you are. But, there are clouds! The way to “rise of above the clouds,” so to speak, is paradoxically to connect with the earth. That’s because when we become conscious of our physical sensations, the “clouds” of thoughts and feelings can clear up naturally, revealing the radiant awareness beneath them; this is meditation. :וַיִּירָא֙ וַיֹּאמַ֔ר מַה־נֹּורָ֖א הַמָּקֹ֣ום הַזֶּ֑ה אֵ֣ין זֶ֗ה כִּ֚י אִם־בֵּ֣ית אֱלֹהִ֔ים וְזֶ֖ה שַׁ֥עַר הַשָּׁמָֽיִם He was in awe and said, “How incredible is this Place – it is none other than the House of the God, and this is the gateway to Heaven!” Now what you don’t get in the English is that the word for “The Place” is HaMakom, which is Itself a Name of God. So, if you want to rise above the dark clouds of this world, the way up is actually the way down. Come down from your mind, into your body and into connection with the earth, with the support of the physical world, the world of the senses – because this, here-now, is the gateway of heaven…
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Parshah Summary – P’shat
The parshah opens with Yitzhak/Isaac praying for a child after Rivkah/ Rebecca had been unable to conceive, and immediately his prayer is answered. But, she experiences difficult pregnancy as the “children struggle inside her.” She prays that the cause of her suffering be revealed, and Hashem responds that “two nations in your womb.” Esav/Esau emerges first, and Yaakov/Jacob is born clutching Esau’s heel. (Yaakov, Jacob, means “heal.”) As they grow up, Isaac favors Esau, but Rebecca loves Jacob more. One day, when Esau returns home exhausted and hungry from the hunt, he sells his birthright to Jacob for a pot of red lentil stew.
In Gerar, in the land of the Philistines, Isaac presents Rebecca as his sister, out of fear that he will be killed by someone coveting her beauty. He farms the land, reopens the wells dug by his father Abraham, and digs a series of his own wells, and Esau marries two Hittite women. Isaac grows old and blind, and wants to bless his first born Esau before he dies. While Esau goes off to hunt for his father’s favorite food, Rebecca dresses Jacob in Esau’s clothing, covers his arms and neck with goatskins to simulate the feel of his hairier brother, prepares a similar dish, and sends Jacob to his father. Jacob receives his father’s blessings for “the dew of the heaven and the fat of the land,” as well as mastery over his brother. When Esau returns and the deception is revealed, Isaac blesses him as well with the “fat of the earth and dew of the heaven,” but also that he shall live by the sword and serve his brother, though there will come a time when he will “break the yoke” from his neck. Jacob leaves home for Haran to flee Esau’s wrath and to find a wife in the family of his mother’s brother, Lavan/ Lab
Torah of Awakening | Jewish Meditation Teaching
וַיִּתְרֹֽצְצ֤וּ הַבָּנִים֙ בְּקִרְבָּ֔הּ וַתֹּ֣אמֶר אִם־כֵּ֔ן לָ֥מָּה זֶּ֖ה אָנֹ֑כִי וַתֵּ֖לֶךְ לִדְרֹ֥שׁ אֶת־יְהֹוָֽה׃ וַיֹּ֨אמֶר יְה–ֹוָ֜ה לָ֗הּ שְׁנֵ֤י גוֹיִם֙ בְּבִטְנֵ֔ךְ... The children struggled within her, and she said, “If so, why am I like this?” So she went to inquire of the Divine. Hashem said to her, “Two nations are in your womb…” - Bereisheet (Genesis) 25:22-23
Our political climate nowadays is passionate polarized. But there’s another contest for power going on right now as well – can you engage in it with the same enthusiasm? It is the contest between two different versions of yourself. On one side is the Ego. For most of us, this ego usually wins in landslide victories, over and over again. And, rightly so. The Ego has the most experience, with the advantage of being constructed over a lifetime, not to mention having the constant support of the Thinking Mind. On the other side is Awareness. Awareness has a more difficult time because people don’t even notice her. They can’t see her because she is the seeing itself. Furthermore, even though Awareness is far more ancient than the Thinking Mind, she never really ages. She is always seeing this moment anew, so she seems young and naïve. She must, we tend to think, need the Ego and his Thinking Mind to run the show. How does it do that? The basic approach of the Ego is struggle:
וַיִּתְרֹֽצֲצ֤וּ הַבָּנִים֙ בְּקִרְבָּ֔הּ וַתֹּ֣אמֶר אִם־כֵּ֔ן לָ֥מָּה זֶּ֖ה אָנֹ֑כִי... The children struggled within her, and she said, “If it be so, why am I like this?” There comes a time when a person is ready to give up the struggle. The question to each of us is, have you reached this point? Are you ready to go beyond Ego? Do you want to inquire of Reality and find another way? וַתֵּ֖לֶךְ לִדְר֥שׁ אֶת־יְהֹ–וָֽה– She went to inquire of the Divine… Let this be your prayer: “How do I give up the struggle?” But then, sh’ma –listen: a message vibrates from the Silence: שְׁנֵ֤י גוֹיִם֙ בְּבִטְנֵ֔ךְ וּשְׁנֵ֣י לְאֻמִּ֔ים מִמֵּעַ֖יִךְ יִפָּרֵ֑דוּ וּלְאֹם֙ מִלְאֹ֣ם יֶֽאֱמָ֔ץ וְרַ֖ב יַֽעֲבֹ֥ד צָעִֽיר: Two nations are in your womb –– in other words, there are two of you! Two peoples will separate from within you –– in other words, be aware of the distinction between the ordinary me, the Ego, and the awareness behind and beyond the Ego. And one kingdom will become mightier than the other kingdom, and the older will serve the younger… The Ego, the conditioned me, is old, not in the sense of actual age, but in the sense that it is based on experience from the past. But, there is a deeper I that never grows old; it is always fresh, alive and new. The Ego likes to be in charge, but it is destined to serve Awareness. Then, there will be a great Silence far more profound than any thought. That Silence is your nakhalah, your birthright, if you would but awaken to it. How to awaken to It? וַיְהִ֣י עֵשָׂ֗ו אִ֛ישׁ יֹדֵ֥עַ צַ֖יִד אִ֣ישׁ שָׂדֶ֑ה וְיַֽעֲקֹב֙ אִ֣ישׁ תָּ֔ם ישֵׁ֖ב אֹֽהָלִֽים: Esau was a man who knew hunting… but Jacob was a simple man, dwelling in tents. In other words, Give up your “hunting,” give up your seeking for control. Or more precisely, be the awareness of your impulse to seek control. Come into the “tent” of your heart, into this moment as it is, and dwell here in simplicity. This portal of simplicity is represented by the letter yud. The letter yud is the smallest of the letters, almost dimensionless, like a point. It is also the shape that begins the inscribing of all the other letters. In this sense it hints that all of our experience on all levels begins with this formless, dimensionless, unassuming yet most profound miracle – the Divine gift of consciousness. It is simple because it is prior to preference, prior to analysis, prior to opinion; it is simply aware.
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Parshah Summary – P’shat
The parshah opens with Sarah’s death at the age of 127, after which Abraham buries her in the Cave of Makhpelah in Hebron, which he purchases from Ephron the Hittite for four hundred silver shekels.
Next, Abraham sends his servant Eliezer to find a wife for Isaac in Haran. At the village well, Eliezer asks God for a specific sign: that when the maidens come to the well, he will request water from them. If one of the women gives him water and offers to water his camels as well, then she should be the one destined for his master’s son. Rebecca, the daughter of Abraham’s nephew Bethuel, appears at the well and passes the test. Eliezer is invited to their home, where he tells her family everything that has happened. Rebecca returns with Eliezer to the land of Canaan, where they encounter Isaac meditating in the field. Isaac marries Rebecca and is comforted over the loss of his mother. Abraham marries another woman named Keturah, and they have six more sons. When the sons grow up, Abraham “sends them off to the east with gifts.” Abraham dies at age of 175 and is buried beside Sarah by his two eldest sons, Isaac and Ishmael.
Torah of Awakening
There’s a story that in the late 1700s, when Reb Shneur Zalman was incarcerated in a Russian prison, a guard noticed the great presence of the rabbi and went to ask him a question: “You are a holy man. There is a question that has been bothering me about the scriptures. When Adam was in the Garden of Eden and he ate from the forbidden fruit, it says that God asked him where he was. How is it possible that God didn’t already know where he was?”
Reb Shneur Zalman answered- “It’s like this. At every moment and at every time, God is asking you- where are you? Right now you are twenty-seven years old. Are you fulfilling the purpose of your life?” When he heard this, the guard almost fell over, because the rabbi had said his actual age, and there was no way he could have known. At that moment, a deep knowing awakened within the guard and the course of his life began to change. Once I saw a video of some children being shown an old rotary telephone from the 1970s. “What is it?” they wondered. When they were told it was a phone and how it worked, how you physically dial the numbers by putting your finger in the hole and cranking the wheel around, they said, “Wait, you mean all this phone does is call people?” For many of us, it’s hard to imagine a time when our calendar, internet, email and a million other functions weren’t instantly available on our phones. Convenient, yes. But whenever I take out my phone, I notice a slight pain in my stomach, because I don’t want all those functions to distract me from the reason I took out the phone in the first place. And this is the shadow side of the smart phone – with all its reminders and notifications, it actually tends to make us forget what we were doing. In the Haftarah for Parshat Hayei Sara, King David is old and lying on his deathbed. Meanwhile, his son Adoniyahu has taken power against King David’s will, throwing a big party and inviting all his supporters, while excluding those close to David. So, the prophet Nathan and King David’s wife Bat-sheva go to King David’s bed chamber to inform him about what’s going on. The king rouses himself and swears that Adoniyahu will not be successful, and that his son Solomon will succeed him instead. Every intention that arises within the mind and heart arises within a particular kind of situation. As time goes on, situations change; in fact, “time” and “change” are not two separate things. Like King David’s desire for Solomon to succeed his kingship, the moments of our original intentions can become old and dim, while new moments and new desires arise. Like the thousands of apps, reminders, alerts, and emails, we sometimes find ourselves thinking: “Wait, what was I doing?” But stand back for a moment, stand back from all the different intentions and priorities of life. Before you had relationships, before you had values, before you had goals- can you go back before any of that and ask, “What was I doing? Why did I come into this life in the first place?” Before you wanted anything, before you had an opinion, there was consciousness- this miracle of perception somehow awakened within your body-mind and began meeting the world as it appeared. The world- sometimes nurturing, sometimes beautiful, sometimes loving, sometimes painful, sometimes horrific. But whatever the form the world happens to takes in any given moment, behind it all is this simple awareness: the awakening of Reality to Itself. Or, we might say, the awakening of God in the world. And this awakening is happening, right now, as the Presence that you are. And on this deepest level, awareness comes into existence simply to be aware. And behind all the complexity of life is this simple truth - you are aware - which is to say, you are awareness. Know yourself as this Presence- behind your thinking, behind your words, behind your actions- and you become like the air we breathe: ever-present, completely surrounding us from without and also nourishing us from within, yet essentially beyond all the drama of our existence- intimate and transcendent in one. That’s why when we become aware of our breathing, when we become aware of the ever-present nourishment which is our breathing in and out, we can also begin to notice this deepest dimension of who we are - the noticing Itself- our ever-present consciousness within which all experience arises. And, paradoxically, it is through the awakening of this transcendence beyond the world that we can awaken our potential for blessing within the world, because the openness of this transcendence allows benevolence can flow. How would the world be different if everyone practiced this transcendent benevolence? If everyone practiced meditation? In our tradition, King David is the symbol of Moshiakh- the awakening of all humanity out of the dream of separation. This dream is so powerful- it creates all the suffering we inflict on ourselves and others. His rightful heir is Solomon- the symbol of wisdom. We come into this world to awaken as that wisdom- to embody consciousness in form and thereby heal the world. We humans have become so lost in form, so caught within its web. The rogue son has taken over and usurped the throne. But any moment, and that means this moment, is the potential to remember – to rouse King David from his slumber and remember why we are here. This middah of remembering and focusing, of piercing through the noise to the Essence, is represented by the letter ז zayin. The letterז zayin begins the word zekher, memory, and zikaron, remembrance. The meaning of zayin is weapon, and particularly the sword, cutting through distractions and falsehoods. This is the practice of meditation – remembering moment to moment to cut through the seductiveness of thought, the virtual reality of the mind, and focus on being the awareness of whatever is present.
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Parshah Summary – P’shat
The parshah opens with Abraham sitting by his tent on a hot day, when suddenly Hashem appears to him. He looks up and sees three mysterious guests (later described as angels), so he rushes off to prepare a meal for them. One of the guests announces that the old and barren Sarah will give birth to a son! Sarah laughs, hinting at the name of their future son, Yitzhak, Isaac, which means “will laugh.” It is revealed to Abraham that the wicked city of Sodom is to be destroyed, but he pleads with Hashem to relent and not punish the innocent along with the guilty. Hashem agrees not to destroy the city if ten innocent people are found, but they are not.
Two of the three angels arrive in the doomed city, and Abraham’s nephew Lot invites them in and attempts to protect them from a violent mob. The angels reveal their destructive mission, instructing Lot and his family to flee and not look back. But, as they flee, Lot’s wife does look back and turns into a pillar of salt. While taking shelter in a cave, Lot’s two daughters (believing that they and their father are the only ones left alive in the world) get their father drunk and become impregnated by him. The two sons born from this incestuous incident become the progenitors of the nations of Moab and Ammon. Avraham moves to Gerar, where the Philistine king Abimelech takes Sarah—who is once again presented as Abraham’s sister—to his palace. In a dream, God warns Abimelech that he will die unless he returns the woman to her husband. Abimelech confronts Avraham, who once again explains that he feared he would be killed over the beautiful Sarah. Sarah miraculously becomes pregnant and gives birth to Yitzhak, Isaac. Avraham is one hundred years old and Sarah is ninety when Yitzhak is born and circumcised at the age of eight days. Yishmael torments Sarah, so Sarah banishes Hagar and Yishmael from their home to wander in the desert, and Yishmael nearly dies of dehydration. Hashem hears the cry of the dying lad, shows his mother a well and they are saved. Meanwhile, Abimelech makes a treaty with Avraham at B’er Shava, and Avraham gives him seven sheep as a sign of their truce. Hashem tests Avraham’s devotion by commanding him to sacrifice Yitzhak, Isaac, on Mount Moriah (traditionally believed to be the site of the Temple Mount). Yitzhak is bound and placed on the altar, and Avraham raises the knife to slaughter his son. A voice from heaven calls to stop him; a ram, caught in the undergrowth by its horns, is offered in Yitzhak’s place.
Torah of Awakening | Jewish Meditation Teaching
וַיֵּרָ֤א אֵלָיו֙ יְהֹ–וָ֔ה בְּאֵלֹנֵ֖י מַמְרֵ֑א וְה֛וּא יֹשֵׁ֥ב פֶּֽתַח־הָאֹ֖הֶל כְּחֹ֥ם הַיּֽוֹם׃ The Divine appeared to him in the plains of Mamre; he was sitting at the entrance of the tent in the heat of the day… - Bereisheet (Genesis) 18:1
What is a tent? It’s a barrier that defines your personal space. There’s a vast world just outside, but you put this flimsy material around you, call it a tent, and you have some sense of separateness from the rest of the world. Just like the ego: there’s a vast Reality, and we are in no way separate from that Reality, but we tend to identify with our bodies, our personalities, our personal stories and so on, and call all of that “me.” That’s the ego; that’s the tent.
יֹשֵׁ֥ב פֶּֽתַח־הָאֹ֖הֶל – he sits in the opening of his tent… But Avraham, rather than shutting himself up inside the tent, sits in the opening. In other words, there’s still a tent, there’s still a sense of “me,” but he sits in the petakh, in the opening, so there’s also a sense that the space within the tent and the space outside the tent are one thing, one space. We can practice this by being aware that everything arising in our experience in this moment, both our perception of things outside the “tent,” meaning outside our bodies, and things inside the “tent,” such as our emotions and our thoughts, are all arising in the one space that is our awareness. You can still think of this tiny corner of your awareness that encompasses your body and heart and mind as “me,” but the entirety of your experience, even your perception of the stars millions of light years away, are all arising in the one space that is your field of awareness, and that’s actually the deepest you – that formless, borderless, field of awareness; this realization is the fruit of meditation. וַיַּ֗רְא וַיָּ֤רׇץ לִקְרָאתָם֙ מִפֶּ֣תַח הָאֹ֔הֶל – When he saw them, he ran from the opening in the tent to greet them… Meaning, if you want to know this deepest you, then you have to consciously invite everything within your experience to exist, even if it’s unpleasant. That’s the key. Because when you resist certain aspects of your experience, that’s the equivalent of shutting the flap on your tent and hiding inside, so there’s no more petakh, no more opening. That’s why Avraham is seen as the embodiment of hospitality – he runs from the opening to greet his guests and offers them food. He sits in the opening of his tent, and whatever happens to come by, he invites in; this is the moment to moment practice of meditation. וַיֵּרָ֤א אֵלָיו֙ יְהֹ–וָ֔ה – The Divine appeared to him… These opening words of the parshah are really a description of how to relate to Whatever appears in the moment – because when you consciously invite everything to be as it is, you “sit” in the open space between separateness and Oneness, and you receive EveryThing as a manifestation of the One Thing; whether It appears as three men, or as two angels, it doesn’t matter, because everything are forms of the One Thing. וַיִּגַּ֥שׁ אַבְרָהָ֖ם וַיֹּאמַ֑ר הַאַ֣ף תִּסְפֶּ֔ה צַדִּ֖יק עִם־רָשָֽׁע׃ Abraham came forward and said, “Will You sweep away the innocent along with the guilty? This brings us to a kind of paradox, because when it is revealed to Avraham that God is going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, he argues with God; he tries to change the course of what’s happening. So, on one hand, he invites everything to be as it is, but on the other, he’s arguing and trying to change it for the sake of compassion. And this is really the supreme spiritual teaching. When we talk about acceptance, about inviting everything to be as it is, our minds tend to go in the direction of passivity. But this creates a false duality. If we really invite everything to be as it is, that includes our own desire for things to be different. So, on one hand, we accept Reality as it is, but on the other, Reality includes our own desire to change things; Reality is dynamic, alive, and always in motion. The distinction is that when we are hospitable to Reality as it arises, inviting things to be as they are rather than resisting how things are, we can work for change from a spirit of love and openness, rather than from judgment and anger. There is a hint in the opening words: וְה֛וּא יֹשֵׁ֥ב פֶּֽתַח־הָאֹ֖הֶל כְּחֹ֥ם הַיּֽוֹם׃ – …and he was sitting in the opening of his tent in the heat of the day. The word for “the day” is hayom, which can also mean, “today” – in other words, the right now. The word for heat, khom, can also mean “warmth.” So, in this sense, khom hayom could mean “the warmth of Presence.” If you want to pierce through the separateness of things to the underlying Divine unity, open your heart to this moment. Warmly invite Reality to be as it is, and then when you act to change things, do it from a place of inviting change, rather than forcing. Even in those rare times when you do have to force something, you can still do it from a place of love rather than resistance and anger. Just like when you abruptly grab a child away from the danger of a precipice or an oncoming car – externally there might be a violent forcing quality, but of course you’re not angry at the child, you just have to act swiftly and effectively. If you have the right kavanah, the right attitude that arises from Presence rather than resistance, then your action toward change will flow from the Oneness, and will be an expression of the Oneness, even when there’s conflict. That’s why Avraham can argue with God, and yet the argument itself is an expression of God, because Avraham is arguing that God’s compassion become manifest; in a sense, it is God’s prayer to Himself, just as our practice is a kind of prayer to ourselves: May we welcome this moment as it is. This is the meditation Path of ב Bet, the middah of hospitality, of welcome.
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